God, it’s been about a zillion years since I last did a restaurant review. Not since the good old days when Iceland was still the least corrupt country in the world, Baugur owned the Universe, Björgólfur Guðmundsson was still the benign grandfather in the gold tie, and the brothers who owned Kaupthing were just a couple of down-home boys in the prepared food business.
Like I said, a zillion years.
Anyway, YT headed out to a restaurant tonight along with a French journalist [hi Laurence!] who I thought might like to try something Icelandic, like maybe, um, whale meat. So I booked us a table at an oldie-but-goodie joint called Þrír frakkar, a name that can either mean “three overcoats” or “three Frenchmen”. Which I thought was kinda fitting.
Alas, like the 2007-era, the memory of Þrír frakkar was bathed in some kind of glow that was quite different from the actual reality. I failed to remember, for instance, the blandness of the pre-cooked potatoes or the rubbery veggies that seem like they’ve been lying in water for at least 24 hours. Fish is the specialty of the house, yet my fish [sauteed halibut filet with lobster] was overcooked and kind of dry. In fact, last Thursday I had the fish special of the day at Vegamót [which usually serves up exceptional food, by the way, and at REALLY reasonable prices] that was vastly superior to this evening’s fare and cost LESS THAN HALF the price [ISK 1590 as opposed to around ISK 4,000].
Besides that, the interior was looking decidedly tired, the toilets were smelly and the guests at the next table were plastered and making so much noise that it was virtually impossible to have a normal conversation.
In spite of all this, however, the place was packed, almost exclusively with tourists [the only Icelandic I heard screamed spoken was by the rowdy folks at the next table].
The redeeming feature? Dessert. I had skyr brûlée which was excellent. Everything else was less than stellar.
Þrír frakkar, Baldursgata 14. 3frakkar.com
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
This restaurant has been featured in a program, shown on German TV some time ago. So, I wouldn’t be surprised, if many of those tourists had been German. When a restaurant has become a tourist trap it’s almost always too late.
I had tried to get a table there without advance booking last November but it was fully packed. Instead we went to a restaurant next to the parliament (I have forgotten the name), which was ok. As it seems, I don’t have to regret it.
No need to publish my comment. I only would like to draw your attention to a well-written (if somewhat dry) and balanced article on icesave from Anne Sibert, member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Iceland.
http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/4611
I liked having Skyr yoghurt pots in Iceland and missed them back in London (although I remember seeing it in a Soho health shop a little while ago), so Skyr brûlée sounds good…
I’ve been living next door to Þrír frakkar for three years and only gone there once. I kept nodding while I was reading your entry. Sad.
Yup that sounds similar to the last time i went there. Also add that the portions for what they were charging were VERY small. 1 minutes of eating and it was all “is that it? I´m still hungry”….
Thanks, all!
Marc – thanks for the link – publishing it because others might find it interesting as well.
@Mark, Alda too.
Thanks for the article link about the Icesave dilemma. I am just playing ‘catch-up’ on this issue, hence the article by Anne Sibert was informative and also her CEPR links to other economists were helpful too.
Iceland lost a great friend from New Iceland (Gimli) Neil Bardal, OF who made his transition on February 12 afrter a battle with cancer. He hosted hundred of visitors from Iceland and a tireless worker for relationships between Canada and Iceland.
I’ve been there once — on a Sunday night during the “off-season”. It’s probably better on the quieter nights — it seems that a restaurant like this can only thrive and give proper attention to preparing cuisine when it’s only at 1/3 capacity. My food was fine (not exceptional), and the helpings were generous (even the glass of wine was generously over-filled) but I’d agree that the traditional fare can be a bit bland. I’m a spicy girl; I need the flavors to explode. The skyr brulee was fab of course.
P.S. Whomever commented on this place being full of German tourists, that seems true.
If the topic was a restaurant, I’ll confine myself to banking, with the excuse that on either hand we seem to have institutions offering less than promised. So, to the article:
http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/4611
They key contention seems to be, insofar as whether Iceland able to repay the Icesave debt without undue harm, that 90% of Landsbanki’s assets might be recovered. I have two questions in that regard: 1) Is 90% at all a realistic figure, and, 2) even at 100% recovery, didn’t Landsbanki’s liabilities far exceed its capitol?
Or put another way, is solving the Icesave debacle really as simple as recovering most of Landsbanki’s assets?
As far as culpability is concerned, the author, Ms Sibert, seems to make a convincing case that Iceland should owe the minimum of €20,778 on each account, regardless of nationality. At least in principal. I do wonder to what degree other sovereign states, such as the UK, Germany, or the United States, could or would repay the debt of their banks if they ALL failed?
Which brings me around to one of my favorite topics, that of transparency. If Landsbanki and others were freely writing cheques the government of Iceland could never hope to cash, then its fiduciary responsibility to reign them in and deny such freedom. And since they would ultimately be stuck with the bill in the end, it was the responsibility of the Icelandic people to see that their government did exactly this. It appears they did not in part because they had no idea what was going on at the time. One could make any number of cases on that alone, moral, legal, ethical and otherwise.
At least in future it would seem that the people of Iceland should know exactly what their government is up to, and able to dictate what it does. For they obviously bear the responsibility, if only in aftermath.
@idunn
We’ve been discussing this over at IceNews
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/02/12/icesave-talks-to-reopen-next-week/
and it seems that about 30% of the total assets are recoverable, and that this sum would cover about 90% of the liability to the Dutch and British governments. It also means that a lot of other creditors will get nothing. It’s a horrible mess. The other creditors could challenge the preferential treatment of the UK/NL. I haven’t seen any timescales as to when the assets can be recovered either.
I shall make a note and look it up next time I’m in Iceland… in fact, my wife is taking another school party this Easter, so I’ll make sure she pays a visit. To the Vegamót, that is!
Never been to Þrír frakkar and probably won’t now. Weird, since I live about 5 min walk from there. Closer to Vegamót though, their Buffalo wings are excellent too.
Please keep going with the restaurant reviews – even though ppl still talk Icesave in the comments
Thanks for the restaurant review – it was a nice change of pace.
You surprised me with a choice that I hadn’t heard of before – if it’s still around when we come back to Iceland, I’ll make a note not to go there!
If you haven’t been yet, I highly recommend the Tapas Barinn. We had two meals there in our two weeks in Iceland – both were excellent. And it is hard to go wrong with Sangria around.